


Mac's Character Motivations

by treponema (haemophilus)



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 09:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11666532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haemophilus/pseuds/treponema
Summary: An essay about Mac's character motivations.





	Mac's Character Motivations

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment below if you agree/disagree!

Mac as a character has always been fascinating to me. He is a portrayal of many aspects of toxic masculinity – arguably the yin to Dennis’s yang when it comes to embodying certain qualities of harmful societal expectations thrust upon white men. However, Mac is also more than that. Toxic masculinity is a response to many of his primary motivations. His internalized homophobia, religious conservatism, whining, bossiness, addiction, and need for parental approval also are secondary motivations that are reflective of who Mac is at his core. Ultimately, Mac is a coward in denial of pretty much everything in his life. He’s impulsive and has a need to express his dominance over other people and situations. Like everyone in the gang, he seeks pleasure without asking questions. He is thirsty for approval from other people. These primary and secondary motivations make up the whole that is Ronald ‘Mac’ McDonald.

_Denial_

Denial the most important aspect of Mac’s character. This is stated explicitly in ‘Mac Day’ by Dennis:

“The man is in complete denial of everything in his life.”

His capacity for denial is the stuff of legend. Despite his mother and father having both told him that they do not love him, he continues to believe that this is untrue. Nothing save his belief that his father was literally going to kill him was enough to sway him temporarily from this state of denial. Mac’s mother does not love his father and likewise, yet he believes that if they reunited, his family would be whole again. This is clearly based out of a neglectful childhood in which he had no choice but to believe that the way he was treated was loving (via his mother) or would be loving if there was an opportunity (via his father).

Mac genuinely believes he is incredibly tough and masculine. This is despite an inability to fight, and a total lack of athleticism. Often, activities he deems ‘masculine’ are homoerotic in nature. When he gains eighty pounds, he truly believes that this is ‘mass’ rather than fat. He believes himself to be the ‘Sheriff of Paddys’ despite not being good at this job at all. Mac is an enormous coward, which prevents him from being the tough and masculine person he believes himself to be.

This denial extends to his religion and homosexuality. Mac believes that he has all the answers and that he is the only person who is correct. He will never admit to being wrong, even saying in ‘Reynolds vs. Reynolds: The Cereal Defense’:

“I won’t change my mind because I’m an American. I’m dug in, and I’ll never change.”

Mac truly believes that he is going to heaven, despite behaving atrociously on the regular. Most of the time, we see Mac’s religion being used as a playing card to prove that he is right. We see him perpetuating bigotry towards Jewish people and being homophobic towards himself and other people. Mac doesn’t believe in evolution, and he shames women for having abortions. He believes that having and ordering people around with these shallow beliefs is enough to make him good in God’s eyes. Mac doesn’t follow any of Jesus’ teachings about kindness, giving of yourself, faithfulness, etc. And, of course, all of God’s rules are an exception when his own behavior is involved.

Like the others, Mac is in denial that he is an alcoholic. Mac believes that he is just a kid having fun. When Dennis calls him out for having a beer at nine in the morning, Mac replies:

“Whatever, dude. Irrelevant.”

He is perfectly willing to shove his alcoholism down deep rather than admit he has a problem.

Mac believes he is the ‘brains’ of Paddy’s Pub and their plans. This is despite showing a marked lack of intelligence. For example, in “The Gang Saves the Day,” he does not even understand what a pun is in his own fantasy. We learn in “Lethal Weapon 6” that Mac finds it difficult to follow movie plots unless they are directly spelled out.

Mac also believes that other people in the gang like him a lot. This is despite the other members of the gang finding him to be annoying and even hating him. We see this façade crack momentarily in “The Gang Gets Analyzed”:

“You know, sometimes I feel like I feel like they don't even understand me and we're not even that good of friends.”

Seconds later, he has swallowed this down:

“That's bullshit! That's bullshit! We're, like, the best friends in the whole goddamn world! Goddamn them for making me think otherwise!”

Overall, Mac’s happiness rests entirely upon his denial. If Mac were not in denial, he would recognize that his life has been terrible and that he is none of the things he believes he is. Rather than accepting this, he shoves these terrible things deep down inside of himself. Mac prefers his false beliefs to reality. Given that he has had a pretty shit life, it makes sense for that to be an integral part of what makes him tick.

_Cowardice_

Mac is a huge coward. While he likes to posture that he is ‘hard,’ he has no problem running away from situations that he deems to be frightening. At times, this trait will even overrule his denial. For example, in “Mac and Charlie Die,” Mac drops the idea that his dad loves him because his dad had threatened to kill him in “Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender.” Because of this fear, he fakes his own death.

Due to being a coward, Mac will try to get his way through passive aggressive means. He is a notorious whiner, a trait other people in the gang find to be incredibly frustrating. A great example of this is Dennis’s response to Mac whining and not looking him in the eye when talking about jean shorts being his idea:

“Look at me when you’re talking to me!”

This cowardice in conflict is also shown from his nickname when he was a young person: Ronnie the Rat. According to Dee in “The High School Reunion”:

“He was a nark and a tattletale, and he became the main drug dealer when he told on the other main drug dealer.”

Mac’s denial is also supported by his cowardice. If Mac was not a coward, he would be brave enough to admit to himself that his life is terrible. He might have to work towards change, and admit that nobody in his life likes or loves him.

_Impulsivity and Pleasure Seeking_

Like other members in the gang, Mac is very impulsive and seeks immediate pleasure. He does not care at all about how he may disturb or disrespect people that are in the way of getting what he wants. It does not matter to him whether what he wants is trivial or not. A great example of this is when he answers a phone call from someone with the incorrect number in “Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life.” When the other people in the theater tell him to quiet down, he tells the person who called him:

“I got some dick in a movie theater giving me shit.”

Mac will go to great lengths to get what he wants and seek pleasure, even by doing heinous things. In “Frank Sets Sweet Dee on Fire,” Mac, Frank, and Charlie repeatedly set Dee on fire to get newsworthy footage. Mac and Dennis hunt Cricket because they think it would be fun. In “Psycho Pete Returns,” Mac and Charlie decide that Pete being sane isn’t very much fun. They attempt to turn him crazy again simply because they believe he is more fun that way.

As stated earlier, Mac’s religious beliefs are often a pawn in getting what he wants rather than deeply held convictions or an understanding of the bible. For example, in “Mac Fights Gay Marriage,” Mac is jealous that Carmen got married instead of calling after she got bottom surgery. He grabs a bible, skims it, and then uses one passage to tell her that her marriage is an abomination. This is not due to him caring about gay marriage – in fact, he says later in the episode after Dennis has kicked him out of their apartment:

“Everyone should be able to get married to whoever they want.”

Mac wants to shame Carmen for what he perceives deep down as a personal slight to him. This is mixed with a deep confusion and denial that this is what it is about. When Carmen says that he should just admit that it is about the two of them, Mac says:

“I’m never going to admit that, Carmen!”

It is notable that Mac’s coming out was not driven by bravery. Rather, his final coming out of the closet was driven primarily by pleasure seeking – i.e. gaining access to a scratch off ticket and being out “feeling kinda good.” Mac will only let go of denial permanently if it feels good to do so.

_Desire for Dominance_

The clearest expression of Mac’s desire for dominance is his bossiness. Mac is incredibly bossy. This is exemplified in “Mac Day.” He spends the entire day bossing everyone around. When the gang does not listen to him because they prefer Country Mac, his bossiness gets worse and worse. This culminates at the end of the episode when Dennis tells him to admit that he is not a badass:

“Get on your knees! Get on your knees!”

Another great example of this is in “The Gang Beats Boggs.” Mac is given the role of den mother in the episode, and he takes it as an opportunity to order everyone around and control the narrative of the game. He puts himself on a pedestal in this role as though it is rightfully his. In fact, he only is ‘commissioner Bud Selig’ because he lost a chugging contest.

Mac believes that his opinions and tastes are more important than anyone else’s. As he states in “Reynolds vs. Reynolds: The Cereal Defense”:

“I'm a tastemaker around here. Pretty much what I say goes.”

When people do not go along with what Mac wants on his own merits, he has no issue with using other ways to boss people around. As stated before, his primary way of doing this is to claim that his opinion is what God wants.

Mac is very defensive of anything that might make him seem like he is not dominant. For example, in “The Gang Goes to Hell: Part 2,” Mac says about gay sex:

“Okay, I'll be a bottom now, but in real life, just to be clear, I'm gonna be a top.”

This is despite his creation of a fisting machine in “Hero or Hate Crime?”

In “Mac Kills His Dad,” he defends his dad against perceived femininity of being on the bottom:

“My dad established dominance over this man.”

[A brief aside by the author: I do not believe top/bottom dynamics are dictated by personality. In fact, I find a fixation on top/bottom dynamics in fandom to be gross. I bring up this point specifically because Mac believes that being on the bottom in sex makes someone less masculine or dominant.]

_Desire for Approval_

Mac holds a deep desire for approval about very specific things in his life. He wants his mother and father to love him. He wants his friends to think he is cool. He specifically wants society to view him as tough and masculine. This desire for approval is where toxic masculinity rears its ugly head. Mac believes that fitting into the mold of toxic masculinity – misogyny, seeming tough, being aggressive, etc. – holds value in that it will make people view him as the ideal man. For example, in “Being Frank,” Mac threw a rug that they were supposed to climb over a fence in an attempt to show how strong he is. He tells Frank in private:

“I just want Dennis to think I’m cool.”

Mac believes if he overcompensates and appears to be an ideal portrait of masculinity, that people will respect him, listen to him, and like him. He believes that people will buy into the delusions that he has about his life if he presents himself in this way. When Mac does not get the approval he desires, he will manufacture it in his mind. In this way, his denial interplays with his desire for approval. 

_Conclusion_

In conclusion, thanks for reading. This is way too long. I hope you liked it.


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